A writer must “know and have an ever-present consciousness that this world is a world of fools and rogues… tormented with envy, consumed with vanity; selfish, false, cruel, cursed with illusions… He should free himself of all doctrines, theories, etiquettes, politics…” —Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?). “The nobility of the writer's occupation lies in resisting oppression, thus in accepting isolation” —Albert Camus (1913-1960). “What are you gonna do” —Bertha Brown (1895-1987).

Thursday, August 29, 2013

…Nothing is 'saved' in pension 'fix'? by Jim Broadway

“…Here's
why: for seven decades our elected officials - governors and legislators -
gave us programs and services that cost far more than they had the
courage to ask us to pay with our tax dollars. They ran up debts yearly,
but they papered over these debts with thefts from the pension systems -
with public employees' money - and with artfully crafted lies.

“Add to that
the Great Recession's effects and we find that the five state-administered
pension systems are obligated by about $100 billion… more than their
current assets can cover…

“‘Why do we
have to pay it?’ you ask. ‘Can't we just 'save' it?’ You just can't, okay?
The obligation has been incurred. It won't go away, not a dime of it. Every
dollar will be paid by somebody and will be accounted for in
some way.

“But our policymakers - governors
and legislators - are afraid to ask us to pay for the fiscal
mismanagement they have committed on our behalf. They always look for
someone else to pay inconvenient debt, someone powerless to complain.

“Their
favorite victims are "sin tax" payers. In the past they've hit up
smokers, drinkers and gamblers to pay for services unrelated to smoking,
drinking or gambling. Now that medical marijuana is legal, look for the tokers to pay
their price.

“But [$100B],
that's a lot of money. The tokers can't afford it. And hitting up the general
taxpayers - that is, us - is out too. The policymakers are afraid of us,
you know. They've pandered on taxes so long that they now believe their
own pander.

“Does that
mean there's no one to victimize, no constituency that has played no role
at all in creating $100B in pension debt but whom our policymakers - our
governor and legislators - can coerce into paying it off anyway?

“Calm down.
A class of victims is visible through the fiscal fog. It is the
members of the pension systems themselves. Sure, they've made all their
payments, every one of them, to secure their relatively modest retirement
benefits. But they're still vulnerable.

“We - that
is, the State of Illinois - can just renege on our - that is, its - promises
made to them in their contract (state law) and slashing their benefits.
That will cut our (the state's) obligations by a big number -
which we then will call ‘savings.’

“You want details? Forget it.
The Conference Committee on SB 1 - ten legislators whose job it is to come up with a
way to screw over the pension members - are deliberating behind closed doors.
(The Open Meetings Act doesn't apply to them.) There's no way of knowing
exactly how the deed will be done.

“The details provided by the Associated Press are of
little help. They're going to fiddle with the COLA and allow pension
members actually to reduce their employee contributions - and somehow that's going
to save the systems. It will be interesting to see how that is purported to add
up.

“[The AP]
article goes on to mischaracterize other proposals as ‘saving’ vast sums
of money, $187 billion in the case of a plan favored by House Speaker Michael
Madigan, $47 billion by one backed by Senate President John Cullerton.

“Get it
straight. Nothing is ‘saved.’ Part of the obligation may be reduced by state
payments. Part may be accounted for as benefits and subtracted from what the
contract (state pension law) currently calls for. But someone will pay
every dollar.

“What's
next? Isolated details of the committee's discussions may dribble out now and
then, but no legislative action is expected before the veto session that
convenes on October 22. We'll all be mushrooms until then.

“Recently
the state's credit-worthiness ratings were lowered. Now the We Are One Illinois coalition of unions believes corporate
leaders actually lobbied the agencies to lower the ratings - to lend
credibility to the ‘pension crisis.’

“Former
Illinois Attorney General Ty Fahner flatly denied (in media interviews) that he
would never do such a thing. But the coalition hopes you'll pay attention to Fahner's comments at a closed-door meeting of corporate
leaders in Chicago.

“The meeting
was for the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago. Fahner is the
committee's president. You wouldn't think anyone would even consider doing
anything with such costly effects just to lend a sense of urgency to an issue
of public policy. The state's former top law enforcement officer would be
especially reluctant to do so, right?

Teacher/Poet/Musician

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Persona

"I want everything to be explained to me or nothing. And reason is impotent when it hears this cry from the heart. The mind aroused by this insistence seeks and finds nothing but contradiction and nonsense" —Albert Camus (1913-1960).